Fuel sales rose by 13% in June following the relaxation of Covid19 restrictions. Fuel dealers sold 144 million liters of super petrol and 187 million liters of diesel in the month.
June saw diesel sales increase by 21.8 million liters and petrol sales rise by 16.7 million liters after president Uhuru reduced the curfew hours from 7 pm to 4 am to 9 pm to 5 am on June 6.
July sales are also expected to increase due to the removal of the ban on inter-county movement which took effect on July 6, boosting activity in key routes like Mombasa-Nairobi. Further, resumption of activity among local airlines will also boost Jet A1 fuel sales whose uptake in April fell by 85.6%.
Fuel sales fell after the onset of the pandemic. In April, petrol and diesel demand dipped by 26.8% and 26.4% respectively due to low activity in the transport and manufacturing sectors.
Business Daily reports that public service vehicles cut their trips by almost half after the curfew and movement restrictions were introduced. Reduced demand from passengers as people worked from home also contributed to low fuel consumption.
While the recent change in curfew hours has offered respite for PSVs, Matatu chairman association Simon Kimutai says capacity guidelines to maintain social distancing forces many vehicles to operate at sub-optimal capacity.
“We had a slight relief to operate more, but where are the passengers? They have stayed away due to the fear associated with the social distancing guidelines, and we are hardly operating at 50 percent,” he said.
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